Tim Curry has given his most direct health update in years, confirming he “still can’t walk” and remains wheelchair-bound after a near-fatal stroke in 2012. The 79-year-old actor shared the status at The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s 50th-anniversary event at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles on September 26, 2025, where he described ongoing issues with his left leg and joked he would not be “singing or dancing very soon.”
He has since expanded on the ordeal around the launch of his memoir Vagabond, outlining how the stroke struck during a massage, a quick-thinking therapist called 911 against his wishes, and surgeons later performed a craniectomy to remove clots.
Tim Curry has continued to work, primarily in voice roles, and has reflected on rehabilitation, speech therapy and staying funny through it all in a new CBS Sunday Morning profile. This report gathers what Tim Curry said and where, reconstructs the 2012 timeline and treatment, and closes with why Tim Curry’s cultural footprint, from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Clue to It and Muppet Treasure Island, still commands a full house.
What did Tim Curry just reveal in 2025 about his health?
At the Academy Museum’s 50-year celebration of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Sept. 26, 2025, Tim Curry delivered a plain update. As per a People.com report dated September 29, 2025, Tim Curry said,
“I still can’t walk, which is why I’m in this silly chair, and that’s very limiting.”
He added that he would not be “singing” or “dancing very soon,” and noted “real problems” with his left leg, drawing a standing ovation from fans. A week later, at a separate 50th-anniversary screening at Hollywood Forever, he kept the tone wry. As per a People.com report dated October 7, 2025, Tim Curry remarked,
“I'd like to tell you that I haven't been legless before tonight, but it wouldn't be true. Unfortunately, I'm currently sitting in a wheelchair, so get over it!”
The moments coincided with media around Vagabond and a fresh round of questions about Tim Curry’s recovery and day-to-day limitations.
Inside Tim Curry’s 2012 stroke: Timeline, surgery and rehab
Tim Curry’s account of the emergency is now detailed in Vagabond. As per a People.com report dated October 14, 2025, Tim Curry stated,
“I probably owe my life to the fact that he ignored me, went with his instinct, and called an ambulance, Even as they were loading me in, I still thought my masseur had overreacted, and that we were going through a ridiculous and unnecessary exercise,”
crediting his masseur for dialling 911 when he felt “fine.” Doctors then performed a craniectomy. Two clots were removed. He describes initial loss of speech, long-term left-side paralysis, and a pivot to voice work. Tim Curry also emphasizes what the stroke did not take. As per a People.com report dated October 14, 2025, he wrote,
“Honestly, I still feel very grateful that it was not a speech stroke, as losing the ability to be verbal and use words would have been devastating for me,”
noting that language returned with time and therapy. For historical context, public confirmation of the “major stroke” first surfaced in 2013 coverage, which reported he was recovering.
Tim Curry’s career: Why the work endures
Across five decades, Tim Curry’s defining screen and stage roles: Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Wadsworth in Clue, Pennywise in It (1990), standout turns in Annie, Legend and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, plus prolific voice work from The Wild Thornberrys to Star Wars: The Clone Wars remain in active circulation and fan memory.
In a new CBS Sunday Morning profile, he framed the Rocky Horror effect succinctly. As per the CBS News profile dated October 19, 2025, Tim Curry said,
“He gave a lot of teenagers permission to be different,”
describing the role’s power and why the performance still resonates. The memoir Vagabond places those milestones, and the post-stroke pivot, within a single timeline that explains how Tim Curry kept working and kept his humor.
Stay tuned for more updates.
Actor Tim Curry poses for a photo during Emerald City Comic Con at Washington State Convention Center on December 04, 2021 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Mat Hayward/Getty Images)